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Tag: Shibata

  • NJPW Kizuna Road 2016 live results: Katsuyori Shibata defends NEVER title, Young Bucks, Kenny Omega

    This morning’s Kizuna Road show, live in Iwate on New Japan World, is highlighted by two title matches and an eight man elimination tag team match.

    Send your feedback and thumbs up/down/in the middle and a best and worst match to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

    The main event has Katsuyori Shibata, who just won back the NEVER title a few weeks ago at Dominion, defending his championship against Tomoaki Honma, the perennial underdog. It’ll be interesting to see who wins here as they are also scheduled to meet again later this summer in the G1. In another title match, NEVER Openweight Six Man champs The Elite (Young Bucks and Kenny Omega) defend against veteran Satoshi Kojima and former Junior tag champs Ricochet and Matt Sydal.

    In between those two matches we have a big eight man elimination match as Kazuchika Okada, Hirooki Goto, Will Ospreay and Yoshi-Hashi take on Los Ingoberables de Japon – Evil, Bushi, Tetsuya Naito and Sanada.

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    CHASE OWENS VS. DAVID FINLAY

    Owens won a short, solid match after a package piledriver. Finlay is good, and also getting popular. Owens was animated, sold well, but comes across as just a guy.

    KAZUSHI SAKURABA & TOMOHIRO ISHII & ROCKY ROMERO & BARETTA VS. HIROYOSHI TENZAN & TIGER MASK & JUSHIN LIGER & RYUSUKE TAGUCHI

    Better than usual for this slot. Baretta survived some near falls with Tenzan. It ended with Taguchi using a plancah on Ishii, Tiger Mask did a tope on Romero, Liger did a plancha on Sakuraba and in the ring, Tenzan pinned Baretta after a moonsault. The crowd was pretty hot seeing Tenzan deliver the move.  Match kept moving, was good.

    Tenzan did a promo after the match. He’s mad he’s not in G-1 this year, and the crowd wants him in.

    YUJIRO TAKAHASHI & HANGMAN PAGE VS. YOSHITATSU & CAPTAIN NEW JAPAN

    Fans were into chanting for the Hunter Club. Match was okay with Page actually the best of the four. Captain got some near falls on Page before Page put him away with the Omori driver. Whenever Page does that move, it looks like the guy is going to get hurt because he drops them on their head.

    Page hung Captain over the top rope after the match. Page cut a promo announcing that in August the tag titles come back to Bullet Club. That means that tag title match with Briscoes vs. Page & Takahashi is likely on the final day of G-1 at Sumo Hall.

    TOGI MAKABE & JUICE ROBINSON VS. YUJI NAGATA & MANABU NAKANISHI

    As you would expect, Nagata pinned Robinson with a bridging back suplex for the win. Robinson worked most of the way and sold. Nakanishi did more than usual including a top rope superplex and a crossbody off the top. Best stuff was Nagata vs. Makabe.  Right before the finish, Nagata & Nakanishi did a double-team on Robinson with Nagata doing a high kick and Nakanishi coming off the top rope wth a chop.

    It’s intermission time. They ran through the entire undercard in barely an hour.

    YOUNG BUCKS & KENNY OMEGA VS. SATOSHI KOJIMA & RICOCHET & MATT SYDAL FOR NEVER TRIOS TITLES

    Young Bucks & Omega were all wearing New Day T-shirts. Nick still has his ribs taped up. He was also doing the Big E pelvic thrusts.

    Super match, great from start to finish with the belts changing hands. With the Bucks as tag champs, losing the trios belts makes sense but they bounce these belts around too much. The finish saw Kojima hit Omega with a lariat and then, he lariated both Bucks at the same time. Sydal hit the shooting star press on Matt, and Ricochet hit the shooting star press at the same time on Nick with Sydal pinning Matt.

    Nonstop action and moves, but at times, it was the Ricochet highlight show. Everyone was at their best here. The Bucks twice tried the Meltzer driver but both times it was stopped. Lots of dives. The Bucks & Omega also did a “The Elite” chant to the cadence of New Day sucks. 

    Kojima called out Tenzan.  He talked about Tenzan not being in G-1, and then offered Tenzan his spot.  He really didn’t do much here so maybe he’s hurt, but on paper, that’s a backward move for the tournament.

    KAZUCHIKA OKADA & HIROOKI GOTO & YOSHI-HASHI & WILL OSPREAY VS. TETSUYA NAITO & SEIYA SANADA & EVIL & BUSHI IN AN ELIMINATION MATCH

    Another excellent match.  It came down to Ospreay and Bushi and they were great. Bushi blew the mist but Ospreay moved and it went into Sanada’s eyes.  Ospreay won after a standing Spanish fly and the Oscutter, a diamond cutter off the ropes. Pretty heated match. Naito and Okada did their big spots early to make it clear they were going over the top together. Evil clotheslined Goto off the apron to eliminate him. Yoshi-Hashi superkicked Evil off the apron to eliminate him. Sanada revesed a cradle by Yoshi-Hashi to pin him. This left Ospreay with Bushi and Sanada. Ospreay dropkicked Sanada off the apron to eliminate him. Ospreay was booked to be, and was, the star of the match.

    KATSUYORI SHIBATA VS. TOMOAKI HONMA FOR THE NEVER OPENWEIGHT TITLE

    Another excellent match but a little predictable. I think everyone pretty much knew how the match would go and the ending. Honma got a lot of offense but nobody ever bought him winning.  Everything was laid in hard.  A highlight was Honma coming off the top rope to the floor with a diving headbutt and escaping a guillotine by turning it into a brainbuster.  Lots of hard elbows.  Honma did his headbutts.

    The finish saw Honma do a Mascaras style headbutt and Shibata caught him with a choke. He choked him almost all the way out, let go and hit the penalty kick for the pin. It just felt from the start that this is a showcase win for Shibata.  Because of that, it wasn’t as good as the match they had a few years ago in G-1 which was a match of the year candidate.  Last three bouts were all totally different and all delivered.   

    Shibata helped Honma to his feet and then threw Honma out of the ring and raised the belt.

  • Wrestle Kingdom 10 Preview Series: The Stone Pitbull vs. The Wrestler

    At Wrestle Kingdom 10, Katsuyori Shibata takes on Tomohiro Ishii for the NEVER (ALL CAPS) Openweight Championship. Why? Because shut up! That’s why! There is no backstory here. No storied rivalry. It’s just happening. And you know what? I’m not even mad. Not even a little. Usually I would be. But in this case, nope. Totally not mad. I’m unmad. And I’ll tell you why in just a minute. But first, let’s get to know these two bruisers who will no doubt beat each other senseless at the Tokyo Dome.  

    Similar to how the formerly white (current colour undefinable) IWGP Intercontinental belt is Shinsuke Nakamura’s plaything which he occasionally lets others have a hold of, Ishii and the NEVER title go hand in hand. Ishii has the most reigns of any NEVER Champion at 4, and the most combined days as champ. Since the conception of the title in 2012 and after Masato Tanaka’s initial run (and Tetsuya Naito’s subsequent run), the NEVER title division has been dominated by Tomohiro Ishii.

    That is until the great disturbance in the force that was Togi Makabe, but that King Kong sized speedbump is in the past now. Ishii is champ and all is good once again. The other important thing to know about Ishii is that his matches are brutal. THE BRUTALEST. Stiff lariats, thudding headbutts, and all the things that make you wince when watching a wrestling match. But he’s not just a physical worker, his selling (always that darn shoulder/neck area) is second to none.

    And then there’s The Wrestler, Katsuyori Shibata. If Ishii’s matches are the brutalest, Shibata’s aren’t far behind. Shibata is one of the best talents in New Japan, but also one of the most underutilised. He’s only ever held one title in New Japan: the IWGP Tag Team Championship with Hirooki Goto. His biggest singles wins usually come in the G1 tournament. Other times, he’s mostly put in tags and multi-mans.

    2015 was a fairly quiet year for Shibata. After winning the tag titles at Wrestle Kingdom and losing them almost immediately, Shibata had very few singles matches and feuds. Late in 2015, it looked like he was heading towards a showdown with the excellently ingobernable Tetsuya Naito at Wrestle Kingdom 10. Shibata defeated Naito in the G1, but Naito got his revenge at Destruction in Kobe. Then, Naito and EVIL (best name ever) defeated Shibata and Goto and knocked them out of the World Tag League.

    However, after pinning Ishii (for the umpteenth time) in a multi-man match on the final day of the World Tag League, he laid the NEVER title over Ishii’s carcass, signifying his intention to challenge at Wrestle Kingdom 10. It was then later announced that Hirooki Goto would be the one to face Tetsuya Naito at the Tokyo Dome.

    Slightly baffling build up, but it kind of makes sense. Sort of. Shibata has beaten Ishii quite a few times in multi-man matches, so he may as well get something out of it in the form of a championship. Meanwhile, Goto has been almost equally involved in the feud with Naito and EVIL, so that match isn’t completely out of left field either. In a discussion about the match I had on social media, an interesting idea was brought up in that Shibata wins the NEVER title and feuds with Naito over it. That would be logical considering their recent history, and something I’d love to see, but it also means Ishii loses at the Tokyo Dome, and I don’t care for that at all.

    When it comes to Ishii vs. Shibata, no elaborate angles or backstories are needed. These two are no frills wrestlers. They arrive. They obliterate. They leave. At Wrestle Kingdom 10, these two are going to murder (not literally) each other, or die trying. I’m not going to lie, I’ll be spending the majority of this match with my hands over my eyes, peeking at the destruction through my fingers. I love both of these wrestlers, but their style is career shortening. It’s sometimes hard to watch, but even harder to look away. When these two meet in the Kingdom of Wrestling on January 4th, they’re going to tear the roof off. We’re gonna need a bigger dome.